Scilly Goodies!

At least three 'goodies' have already turned up on the Scillies - are you going this year? - and I found videos of all three which are good, in particular the first which is an excellent one of the singing Northern Waterthrush. But if you've not the time or interest in all three I'd go for the Black And White Warbler an excellent film of this little beauty, though I'm both puzzled and disappointed at not being able to hear this bird singing it's head off even though there is a bird heard in the background....try it and see/hear for yourself.

The Northern Waterthrush breeds from Alaska across Canada to Nova Scotia, it winters from Florida, Cuba and Mexico south to Ecuador, Peru and northern Brazil....In any event, this bird is lost and had no intention of finding itself on the Scilly Isles where the first record of the species for Britain was found in September 1958 at St Agnes. 



Another North American bird, the Black-And-White Warbler winters south to northern South America. It is - as the video reveals - a quite simply unmistakable bird the first British record of which was of a bird found at Scalloway, Mainland Shetland in October 1936, this bird was dead, the first live bird found was at St Mary's, Isles of Scilly 40 years later in September 1975.

           

Yet another North American bird, the Solitary Sandpiper is one of the rarest North American waders in Britain, it breeds in the coniferous forest belt of northern North America and winters mostly in South America. The first British record of this species is of a bird some time prior to 1870 at Strathclyde, Lanarkshire. 

I'm off to the Scillies....are you cumin!

Here and There.

Mediterranean Gull. Pete Woodruff.

Starting with another example of one of my stunning photographs - I use the words loosely - of the adult Mediterranean Gull with c.320 Black-headed Gulls and 4 Common Gulls on Conder Pool this morning. Also on the pool, a Kingfisher, the resident 3 Wigeon, and a Little Egret. On the circuit here I noted 2 Spotted Redshank, 3 Greenshank, 4 Common Sandpiper, and c.180 Redshank in the Conder channel below the old railway bridge.

On a bit of a 'where should I go next' day I decided to see if the Yellow Wagtail would show at Bank End, it didn't after sifting through 25 Pied Wagtails, but it was a good decision to come here if only for the female Marsh Harrier which flew towards me going north and over Bank House Farm.

Another rewarding decision was to give Aldcliffe a go and do the circuit. With the trees in full leaf during the summer months there are very few places along the track to Marsh Point  where you can view the Freeman's Pools but having looked it over from the gate there was little to note save 3 Grey Herons roosting on the island like folded umbrellas, and a pair of Moorhen had a successful brood of six small young which will need at least four more weeks good luck to steer clear of predation. The return via the embankment was the reward with my first coastal returning Wheatear, 3 Green Sandpiper and a Greenshank were on the wildfowlers pool, and a Snipe was on the flood where a Green Sandpiper had been 1.5 hours earlier but had presumably gone to make up the three on the pool, otherwise the possibility of four GS here today.

On my return on the embankment I realised how big the maize field is - it really is BIG - and couldn't help but wonder how many Lapwings had paid the price of choosing this field to breed this year.

And finally....

Solitary Sandpiper. Paul Baker.

Well I didn't find one of these today, the Nearctic counterpart of the Green Sandpipers I saw at Aldcliffe this afternoon, with similar habitat preferences it breeds in Alaska and much of Canada, and is one of the rarest North American waders in Britain, so if I think I'm watching a Green Sandpiper in September and it flies off showing a dark rump and tail I reckon I may just shout Tringa solitaria.